the special atleuduiif upon our world, llieso purposes must be 

 chiefly intended for our benefit. « 



tween which and other substances, there is a mutual attraction. 

 Their refrangibiUty can be accounted for on no other principle. 

 When a ray of light falls in an oblique direction on the surface of 

 a transparent body, at it approaches that surface it is attracted by 

 it, and its direction is thereby changed. This is what we call re- 

 fraction, and it incontestibly proves, the attractive quality of light. 

 Now if it be admitted in this instance, it must be allowed that 

 light possesses what chemists call elective attraction. If light 



it is attached, it will immediately leave it, attach itself to the ray 

 of light, and be carried away by it, till it meets with some other 



will then be deposited. 



That substance, in the case under consideration, is our earth, 

 tor whose benefit this wonderful contrivance in the machinery of 

 nature has been devised. If it be objected to this theory, that if 

 the light of the sun be thus refracted from behind the moon, as it 

 is from behind the earth, before he is actually above our horizon, 

 the light of the sun, thus refracted by the atmosphere of the moon, 

 would be as intense as if it came without any intervention direct 

 to the eye. The objection is readily met by noticing the effects 

 ascribed to the moon, which necessarily require the exercise of 

 functions which will essentially change the properties of the rays 

 of the sun, in their passage through the atmosphere of the moon. 

 It has already been stated that the rays of the sun do possess the 

 property of attraction, or which is the same thing, of being attract- 

 ed. This is a fact proved, and wherever this property does exist, 



quence and, equally so, a double elective attraction, where circum- 

 stances favour it. 



I shall now make a supposition which 1 think must be allowed 

 to be fortified by the strongest degree of probability. It is this. 

 The rays of the sun, like all other existences m the material crea- 

 tion, as far as human research has gone, are found to be, not sim- 

 ple, but compounds of matter. This is proved by the prismatic 

 analysis. The atmosphere of the moon must be of the same cha- 



